The suffrage is known for 4 principles: universal elections, freedom, equal rights and the secret of voting. If any of these principles is violated elections cannot be considered free and fair. For a long time only men had the suffrage. Women were offered the rights to vote much later. It should be noted of the progressive position Armenia occupies in this view. “In 1919 at the parliamentary...

The President should be a man of state and member of a party, which he can form himself, chairman of National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan told our correspondent. «Robert Kocharyan is not a man of state, neither is Putin», Mr. Hayrikyan considers. In his opinion, before becoming the President the politician should pass a certain way. «It cannot be fixed in the Constitution. He should...

p>Before becoming a deputy or presidential contender the political figure should meet the requirement of the Election Code (EC). However the amendments to the EC do not provide for any new requirements for the candidates. People's deputy group secretary Vahram Baghdasaryan holds the opinion that it is necessary to perfect the requirements and also fix higher education as an essential condition. «The...

The youngest deputy of the Estonian parliament is a 19-year-old girl. In Armenia such a phenomenon is impossible as only the individuals over the age of 25 can run for parliament. A representative of the Qve Armenian Center of Electoral Systems Atom Mkhitaryan considers that the age qualification should be lowered up to 30 for President and 21 for deputy. “It is correct that neither the acting...

«If higher education is essential for a municipal functionary, I think the President should be obliged to have such as well», one of the Yerevan residents said. According to the acting Constitution higher education is not an essential term for those who run for President or deputy. Meanwhile 33% of the respondents state that education should become a primary qualification for these posts. The...

Today Vladimir Putin and Robert Kocharyan officially opened the Russian year in Armenia. The official ceremony started with the Russian anthem, after which the Armenian anthem sounded. Robert Kocharyan mentioned in his speech that the Armenian and Russian nations are tied together not only with culture and history but also with relations in many different areas – power, industry, business, bank system,...

The question of one of the Armenian journalists to the two Presidents was about the efficiency of the CIS structure. Vladimir Putin said that mutual economical or other relations are not regulated by means of the CIS structure, but it is the platform where the heads of the former Soviet Union countries can discuss general problems. {BR} “The CIS countries on the whole have the same problems, and...

They try to adopt the changes of the Electoral Code by means of violation in the Parliament. This is the overall definition of what is going on after the elimination of the amendments of the “Electoral Code” from the NA agenda. The NA majority explained this by the fact that the United Labor Party and the members of the fraction “Democratic Delegates” complain against some points of the Electoral...

“The recent high growth rates in agriculture have not lead to a significant reduction in overall rural poverty”, said today Dr. Max Spoor, Associate Professor of Social Studies at the Centre for the Study of Transition and Development (CESTRAD) in the Hague. {BR} He is the author of the Paper titled “Land Reform, Rural Poverty and Inequality: A Pro-Poor Approach to Land Policies” which was presented today at the UN House in Yerevan, by the...

On March 25, the OSCE Mission held a regular monitoring of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan armed forces’ contact-line on the eastern section of the village of Talish. {BR} From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring mission was led by Field Assistants of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office’s Personal Representative Miroslav Vymetal (Czechia), Peter Kii (Great Britain) and Torsten Aren (Sweden). In the course of the monitoring no...

Since March 22 a collection of signatures has started in the Parliament, which, in case of collecting the necessary quantity of votes, will allow the delegates to appeal to the constitutional court. The initiator of the collection is the United Labor Party, which wants to prove in the CC that the NA Law does not correspond to the RA Constitution. In the latter, for example, it is indirectly stated...

The change of authorities in Kyrgyzstan was not a surprise for Vladimir Putin, «It was a result of the social-economical problems». He regrets that in the following CIS country the change of authorities takes place not by law, by cost of victims and destruction, but he hopes that the opposition leaders will gain full control of the situation and the activity of the state structures will fall in the...

The US President George W. Bush will visit the South Caucasian region for the first time in April. But the President has preferred to visit Georgia only. {BR} This fact, however, did not give the Armenian political powers food for thought. Especially the representatives of the authority-oriented political parties gave united, but rather restricted evaluations that the visit will have positive effect....

The events in Kyrgyzstan once again served as ground for the new announcements of the Armenian opposition. Using the possibility of Parliamentary briefings, the representatives of the Justice bloc mentioned that the RA Government must draw conclusions from those events. {BR} «The Armenian opposition has many a time given the authorities a chance to leave peacefully. And that way is the confidence...

The today's meeting Kocharyan-Putin lasted longer than anticipated. The journalists waited for the Presidents for about two hours. {BR} The press conference anticipated at 11.30 a.m. started at 1:30 p.m. Robert Kocharyan informed that the meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere, and the length of the conversation was conditioned by the wide range of themed for discussion – political, economical,...

On March 28 in Armenia political consultations will start between several political powers. Or, to be more exact, between Parliamentary and out-of-Parliament powers. The opposition and the authorities are not treated here. Simply the consultation of discussing the democratic problem in the country was initiated by the «Orinats Yerkir» fraction. {BR} The powers taking part in the consultation are...

Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the NA independent delegate, is going to start a new collection of signatures in the Parliament to announce impeachment to Robert Kocharyan. The ground is not yet known, but he hopes that NA President Arthur Baghdasaryan will join him. {BR} Hmayak Hovhannisyan is angry with the Parliament's majority spoiling for the second time the special session convened by the initiative of...

The Georgian Parliament has adopted with the first reading the draft law about the secondary education. According to A-info, it was stated in the draft law that in the Georgian state schools the education would be in Georgian (in Abkhazian – in the Abkhazian also). {BR} As a result of the complaint of the national minorities of the country, the Parliament has introduced a special point in the law...

The access of the representatives of the youth organization «Qmara» of the Georgia National Party into Javakhq is excluded. Georgi Khachidze, the authorized representative of the Georgian President of Javakhq, has informed «A-info» about it. "I don't see any reason for "Qmara" to come to Javakhq and I'm sure that they will not go there. As the representative of the President in the region I'm ready to guarantee that not a single representative...

President of Kirghizia Askar Akayev departed from Bishkek. According to the Russian sources, he is in Kazakhstan at the moment. {BR} The republic is ruled by the opposition. No one expected a power change within 3-4 days. However, it is an established fact and it only remains to appoint the leader.

Today independent deputy Hmayak Hovhanissyan came to the parliament with a big wreath.{BR} In his words, it symbolized inevitable revolution on one hand. On the other hand the coalition fellows remind Hmayak Hovhanissyan of politically deceased people. In Hovhanissyan's opinion the flowers symbolize the representatives of different parties. So, the parliamentarians nickmaned Hmayak Hovhanissyan as...

March 17, in Vienna, the report of the Fact-Finding mission was presented at the sitting of the OSCE Permanent Council during which the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs proposed their recommendations to the conflicting parties and the international community. {BR} It should be noted that though the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the Mission and rendered the essential technical assistance its...

The RA Office of the Prosecutor General has initiated a criminal case on the explosion of the car belonging to the State Customs Committee head. Today's incident is viewed as an attempt on the life of a political and public figure.{BR} An investigation group was formed. To note, in the Office of the Prosecutor General our reporters were told that the information on the case will be provided only after it is disclosed.

Today on the initiative of the ARFD Nikol Agbalyan students' union, the ARFD Youth Union and the Youth Union of Armenia about 30 youth and student organizations sent a protest letter to the organizers of Philip Kirkorov’s concerts in Yerevan and demanded their cancellation. {BR} As the principal argument they present anti-Armenian, moreover, pro-Turkish orientation of Kirkorov, who has recently...